Friday, March 01, 2013

It has been awhile since I've shared some Dodgers autographed cards from my collection. Featured here are a couple of 2005 Upper Deck SP Authentic cards of shortstop Cesar Izturis and relief pitcher Steve Schmoll.

Cesar Izturis has bounced around the league a bit since being traded for Greg Maddux in 2006. He's played on 8 different clubs (including the Dodgers), and is about to join a new team this season in Cincinnati (on a minor league contract). Cesar has always been a master with the glove, but has not been able to equal his breakout offensive year in 2004 when he hit .288 and recorded a .710 OPS.

Steve Schmoll has been out of Baseball since he last played for the Harrisonberg Senators in 2008 - a AA farm team of the Nationals. Schmoll is currently an owner (along with his wife) and instructor at "Get Moving - Group Fitness & Personal Training" in Florida. Check out their website here.

LET’S PLAY TWO!: The Dodgers will play a pair of Cactus League contests today with split-squads playing the Angels in Tempe and the Padres at Camelback Ranch – Glendale. Los Angeles will send an offseason acquisition to the hill in both games with right-hander Zack Greinke making his second start of the spring in Glendale against the Padres and Hyun-Jin Ryu taking the hill in Tempe for his second appearance (first start) as a Dodger. In case you’re counting down the days, the Dodgers are just ONE MONTH away from Opening Day!

Don Mattingly will stay in Glendale, while Triple-A Albuquerque Manager Lorenzo Bundy, the reigning Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year, will skipper the club in Tempe.

It’s hard to believe but only four years ago today, the Dodgers and White Sox played the first-ever game at Camelback Ranch – Glendale in front of 11,280 fans. Los Angeles fell 3-2 in that contest, but drew 131,134 fans to Glendale in 14 games in their inaugural season in the Cactus League.

STREAKING: The Dodgers, unbeaten in their last five games, downed the Angels yesterday at Camelback Ranch, 10-8. Luis Cruz powered his second home run of the spring, a two-run shot in the first inning, while Mark Ellis had two hits and knocked in two. Alfredo Amezaga continued to swing a hot bat with two more hits and is a perfect 5-for-5 with three runs scored and four RBI in his last two games. Clayton Kershaw picked up the win and struck out seven in 3.0 innings of work in his second Cactus League start.

After yesterday’s offensive outburst, the Dodgers are batting .290 with a .395 team on-base percentage this spring.

ZACK ATTACK: In Glendale, Dodger right-hander Zack Greinke will make his second start of the spring after allowing just one hit and striking out two in 2.0 scoreless frames on Sunday against the White Sox. Greinke has made just one start in his career against the Friars, picking up the win on May 9, 2011 with 6.0 innings of two-run ball in the Brewers’ 4-3 win at Miller Park. The 2009 American League Cy Young Award winner ranks fifth in the Majors with 1,007 strikeouts since the start of the 2008 season.

RHP Matt Guerrier, who was limited to just 16 games last season with right elbow tendinitis, will make his second appearance of the spring after striking out two in a scoreless inning on Monday against the Cubs.

RHP Stephen Fife allowed one run in 2.0 innings in his only previous outing on Saturday against the White Sox. The Idaho native made five big league starts for the Dodgers last year (0-2, 2.70 ERA) for his first Major League experience.

Non-roster RHP Kevin Gregg will make his second appearance of the spring after tossing a scoreless inning on Monday against the Cubs. The 10-year Major League veteran spent the 2012 campaign with the Orioles.

K-TOWN: In Tempe, Dodger left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu will make his first start of the spring this afternoon after firing a scoreless inning in relief on Sunday against the White Sox. In seven seasons pitching for the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization, Ryu was selected to seven All-Star games, won the strikeout title five times and took home the league’s pitching triple crown in 2006, when he was selected as the circuit’s rookie of the year and player of the year. In his career, Ryu is 98-52 with a 2.80 ERA in 190 games (181 starts).

RHP Matt Palmer will make his second appearance of the spring after firing 2.0 scoreless frames on Sunday against the White Sox. Palmer spent the majority of the 2012 season with Triple-A Tucson, but also made three relief appearances for San Diego during a late May-early June call-up.

RHP Shawn Tolleson last pitched on Monday against the Cubs, striking out two in a scoreless frame. Tolleson, 25, made 40 appearances for Los Angeles last year and limited opponents to a .221 batting average with 39 strikeouts in 37.2 innings.

LHP Paco Rodriguez will make his second appearance of the spring after tossing a scoreless inning on Monday against the Cubs. Rodriguez, the first player from the 2012 First-Year Player Draft to reach the big leagues, allowed just one run in 11 appearances with the Dodgers last season.

THE BISON IS BACK!: Dodger center fielder Matt Kemp is slated to make his 2013 debut this afternoon for the Dodgers as the designated hitter against the Padres. Kemp, who had offseason shoulder surgery, ranks ninth on the Los Angeles Dodgers home run list with 151, three behind Willie Davis for eighth place.

LEGENDS ARRIVING: Two Dodger greats, Eric Karros and Shawn Green, arrived in camp today and will be in uniform as guest coaches for the next three days. Green will throw a ceremonial first pitch before today’s game against the Padres and Karros will follow suit on March 3.

Karros played 12 seasons with the Dodgers from 1991-2002 and is the all-time Los Angeles home run king with 270, while Green donned Dodger blue from 2000-2004 and holds the club’s single-season homer mark with 49 in 2001.

HAPPY DAYS: The Dodgers would like to wish non-roster catcher Ramon Castro a happy 37th birthday today! The 13-year Major League veteran has appeared in two games this spring, going 1-for-4.

BE THERE!: The Dodgers ticket sales department will host another Open House Sunday, March 3 in which fans interested in purchasing a Mini Plan or season tickets can stop by Dodger Stadium from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Complete details on this event can be found by visiting www.dodgers.com/openhouse. Dodger season tickets start at just $6 per game.

The newest Baseball card set of the year, 2012 Panini National Treasures Baseball, has been out since Wednesday, and I have a bunch of pics from the set featuring Dodger players to share. This set is very different from what I'm use to. It is a super-premium set that is filled with nothing but relics and autographs. Even the base cards have game-used pieces embedded within the cards.

I count 14 players I consider Dodger players in the base set. (If I missed anyone please let me know) I say this because there are no team logos anywhere to be seen. This is a non-MLB licensed product, so it can be hard to distinguish which player belongs to which team. For instance, Don Sutton is in the set, but on his base card he is listed as belonging to the Milwaukee Brewers. On the flip side, Sutton also has a bunch of other insert cards that list him being with Los Angeles.

Anyway, below are the 14 Dodgers in the base set. I've provided the card number and the edition size of each card.

#22 Jackie Robinson /99

#24 Burleigh Grimes /25

As you will notice below, there appears to be numerous variations available of each base card. I've done my best to gather example pics of each one, but I am certain I have missed a bunch. For the most part, there is a jersey relic of each player that is numbered to 99 copies, but even scarcer variations exist. For Campanella, there is a jersey card numbered to 99 copies, and a jersey button card that is numbered to just 2 copies.

#30 Roy Campanella

#51 Duke Snider

#52 Carl Furillo /99

The Walter Alston card on the left is numbered to 25 copies, and the card on the right is numbered to 99 copies.

#55 Walter Alston /25

The Don Drydale card on the left is numbered to 25 copies, and the card on the right is numbered to 99 copies.

#59 Don Drysdale

The Pee Wee Reese card on the left is numbered to only 4 copies. It is a jersey tag card. Also, directly below is a jersey card numbered to 99 copies, and I've include a sample of what the revere looks links.

#61 Pee Wee Reese /4

#61 Pee Wee Reese /99

#64 Willie Keeler /99

#84 Leo Durocher /99

The Tom Lasorda card on the left is numbered to 25 copies, and the card on the right is numbered to 99 copies.

#90 Tommy Lasorda

#92 Don Sutton /99

#133 Jake Daubert /99

I have found more Matt Kemp cards than I can imagine. From my count there are at least 4 different Matt Kemp variation base cards. There's a logo tag that is numbered "1 of 1", a button card numbered to 5, a jersey patch card numbered to 25, and a jersey card numbered to 99. See all four versions below.

"When I came back to the organization in 2001, one of the major goals
was to get the Dodgers back to the way they taught pitching for so many
years," said pitching coach Rick Honeycutt. "They had gotten away from
it, from the way it was taught by the great pitching coaches like Red
Adams, Ron Perranoski, Dave Wallace and Sandy.

"That's a huge honor to get to do that. I would have loved to,"
Kershaw said after his second start of the spring Thursday at Camelback
Ranch. "I think I owed it to the team to show I was healthy in spring
training, even though I had two starts at 100 percent last year. I
wanted to come in and show I'm 100 percent great and I know they didn't
feel great about me going.

"Hopefully, in four years I'll get the honor to do it again, but I'll definitely have regrets watching it."

LIFE online shares a bunch of great vintage photos of a Dodgers Spring Training in 1948.

But the rather jarring racial uniformity aside, the photos in the
gallery serve as a welcome reminder of the game’s inimitable appeal for
fans who might have forgotten why they first fell in love with baseball
in the first place: the sound of bat against ball, and ball against
glove; the mingled smells of wood, dirt, grass and leather; warm
sunshine, and the cool of the dugout; the thrill of competition and the
beauty of teamwork; the pure geometry of the diamond — all of these
pleasures are, to varying degrees, illustrated or suggested in Silk’s
spirited pictures.

Check out this great vintage photos, as shared by carver1976 on reddit, of Ebbets Field. As you can see, they are in the midst of completing construction of the fabled stadium.

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“There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey. There’s nothing like it in sports. I don’t care that I’ve never been anywhere else. I don’t care. There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey.” -- A.J. Ellis